(Bloomberg) -- New Zealand filled jobs fell for a seventh straight month in October, adding to signs of rising unemployment.
The number of filled jobs fell by 2,017 or 0.1% from September to 2.359 million, Statistics New Zealand said Thursday in Wellington. There has been a cumulative 36,700 slump in filled jobs since April.
Filled jobs have risen just twice in the past 12 months as high interest rates curb economic growth and hurt hiring. The Reserve Bank has been cutting interest rates since August, including a 50 basis-point reduction yesterday, and acknowledges there is a lagged impact before less-restrictive policy starts to lift employment.
The jobless rate will rise as high as 5.2% next year from 4.8% in the third quarter of 2024, the RBNZ projected. Still, that’s lower than the 5.4% peak it had previously predicted.
Hiring came under pressure after business confidence slumped in the first half of the year. Job vacancy advertisements in October were 26% lower than a year earlier, Bank of New Zealand said in a report last week.
The economy shrank 0.2% in the second quarter and local economists forecast another contraction in the three months through September. The RBNZ yesterday projected a 0.2% contraction.
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